It is being reported that the cost for Obamacare has doubled, from $938 billion in March 2010, to $1.76 trillion in the March 2012 CBO estimate. Obama supporters are saying this isn’t really true, and say critics are making an unfair comparison. Here’s the facts.

On September 9, 2009, Obama said, “Now, add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.”(1)

Obama knowingly lied about the cost of Obamacare and now he has been caught in his lie. Obama knew that it would take four years for the programs to kick in, so there are minimal costs for the first 4 years.

In March, 2010, the CBO estimated the cost from 2010 to 2019 (10 years) to be $938 billion. Since expenditures for the first 4 years are minimal, the cost is really for the final 6 years, or $156 billion yearly on average.(2)

In March, 2012, the new estimate from the CBO covers years 2012 to 2022 (11 years) has projected the total cost to be 1.76 trillion.(3) The first 2 years have little expenditures, so the final 9 years average about $196 billion.

Below is the cost projections by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for the estimates they made in 2010 and 2012.

Year

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

.

2010 est.

2

5

5

5

54

104

161

187

201

214

--

--

--

.

2012 est.

--

--

3

6

66

130

175

197

210

224

234

250

265

.

It must be noted that government estimates of the future costs of programs is notoriously under estimated.